Maria Alm

Maria Alm am Steinernen Meer is a municipality in the district of Zell am See, in the state of Salzburg in Austria.

Geography

It is situated in the Salzburg Pinzgau region, in the valley of the Urslau creek, a tributary of the Saalach river, running between the Steinernes Meer mountain range with the Hochkönig massif (part of the Berchtesgaden Alps) in the north and the Salzburg Slate Alps in the south. The municipal area is located about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) east of Saalfelden on the road to Bischofshofen. It comprises the cadastral communities of Aberg, Alm, Hinterthal, and Winkl.

History

Settled by Bavarian tribes in the 6th and 7th century AD, a knightly dynasty von der Almb is documented from about 1160 onwards. The parish church of Maria in der Almb was first mentioned in 1374 when the area was part of the Archbishopric of Salzburg. Under the rule of Prince-Archbishop Count Leopold Anton von Firmian, it was rebuilt in the present Baroque style around 1730 and received its characteristic spire. At the same time, numerous Protestant subjects were expelled from Salzburg and found a new home in the far away lands around Gumbinnen in East Prussia, where they settled at the invitation of King Frederick William I.

Almış

Almış iltäbär (Almysh Elteber, Almish Yiltawar, pronounced [ʌlˈmɯʃ], fl. end of 9th century – beginning of 10th) was the first Muslim ruler (emir) of bulgars.

Almış was a son of Şilki ([ʃilˈki]). He was a ruler of one of the Bulgar duchies. Initially, a vassal of the Khazars, he struggled for independence and unification of all Bulgar tribes and duchies. He sent ambassadors to the Baghdad caliph. In 922, the caliph Al-Muqtadir's ambassador Ibn Fadlan appeared in the Almış' capital. Almış adopted the Islamic name Jaʿfar ibn ʿAbdullah (Latin Tatar: Cäğfär bine Ğabdulla, Arabic script: جعفر ابن عبدالله‎).

It has been thought during dozens of years, that Almış was a ruler of the Volga Bulgars, and that the Baghdad embassy with its secretary Ibn Fadlan reached the Volga Bulgars in the Middle Volga region (currently, Tatarstan territories in Russia). But recently the thorough reconstruction of the embassy itinerary revealed: the Bulgars ruler "capital" was in the village Tri Protoka near the modern city of Astrakhan. Therefore, all Ibn Fadlan account is about Bulgars and people living in the Northern Caspian area and Low Volga region.

Maria

Maria may refer to:

People

Fictional characters

Maria (goose)

Maria is a maleToulouse Goose (Anser anser), formerly living in Echo Park, Los Angeles who became the subject of news reports in 2011 after forming an unusual association with a local resident, named Dominic Ehrler.

Maria, named by locals and assumed to be female, was familiar to users of the park for several years as a goose which preferred the company of humans to that of his own species, often pecking at homeless people or following walkers and runners around.

Ehrler, a retired salesman, first encountered Maria at Echo Park lake in the summer of 2010 when the bird began to follow him on his daily walks around the lake, readily accepting food from him and soon becoming so attached that he would wait beside the road every morning for Ehrler to arrive at the park. Maria would walk alongside and possessively 'protect' Ehrler from other park users and their dogs and would also attempt to follow him from the park, flying closely behind him as he rode away on his scooter, necessitating attempts to distract the goose, or lock him behind a fence when leaving, to avoid being followed all the way home.

Final Fantasy II

Final Fantasy II (ファイナルファンタジーII, Fainaru Fantajī Tsū) is a fantasy role-playing video game developed and published by Square (now Square Enix) in 1988 for the Family Computer as the second installment of the Final Fantasy series. The game has received numerous enhanced remakes for the WonderSwan Color, the Sony PlayStation, the Game Boy Advance, the PlayStation Portable, and multiple mobile and smartphone types. As neither this game nor Final Fantasy III were initially released outside Japan, Final Fantasy IV was originally released in North America as Final Fantasy II, so as not to confuse players. The most recent releases of the game are enhanced versions for the iOS and Android, which were released worldwide in 2010 and 2012, respectively.

The game's story centers on four youths whose parents were killed during an army invasion by the empire of Palamecia, who are using hellspawn to conquer the world. Three of the four main characters join a rebellion against the empire, embarking on missions to gain new magic and weapons, destroy enemy superweapons, and rescue leading members of the resistance. The Game Boy Advance remake adds a bonus story after the game is completed.